San Lazzaro degli Armeni

Isola di San Lazzaro degli Armeni

Aerial view of the island in 2013
Location in the Venetian Lagoon
Geography
Coordinates
Adjacent bodies of water	Venetian Lagoon
Area
Country
Italy
Region	Veneto
Province	Province of Venice
Commune	Venice
Demographics
Population	17 (as of 2015)
Ethnic groups	Armenians

San Lazzaro degli Armeni (Italian: [san ˈladdzaro ˈdeʎʎi arˈmeːni]; lit. "Saint Lazarus of the Armenians", Armenian: Սուրբ Ղազար, Surb Ghazar) is a small island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies to the southeast of Venice and immediately west of the Lido. It covers an area of 3 hectares.

A leper colony during the Middle Ages, the island has been home to the Armenian Catholic Monastery of San Lazzaro since 1717. It is the headquarters of the Mechitarist Order and, as such, one of the world's prominent centers of Armenian culture and Armenian studies. From the late 18th century to the early 20th century it was a major center of Armenian printing.

The island is one of the best known historic sites of the Armenian diaspora. The monastery has a large collection of books, journals, artifacts and the third largest collection of Armenian manuscripts. Over the centuries, dozens of artists, writers, political and religious leaders have visited the island. Nowadays, it attracts tens of thousands of tourists annually.

History

Vignette of the Isola di S. Lazzaro degli Armeni by Antonio Visentini (1688–1782)

Middle Ages

In 810 the Republic of Venice allocated the island to the abbot of the Benedictine Monastery of St. Ilario of Fusina. In 1182 a leper colony (hospital for people with leprosy) was established at the island. It was chosen for a leper colony since the island is relatively far away from the principal islands forming the city of Venice. It received its name from St. Lazarus, the patron saint of lepers. In 1348 the leper colony was renovated and a church dedicated to San Lazzaro was built. The hospital was moved to Venice in 1595 and the island was gradually abandoned. In the 17th century the island was leased to various religious groups. By the early 18th century only a "few crumbling ruins" remained in the isle.

Armenian period

Mkhitar Sebastatsi

18th-19th centuries

San Lazzaro circa 1877

In 1701 Mkhitar Sebastatsi (Mechitar or Mekhitar), an Armenian Catholic monk, founded a Catholic order in Constantinople that would later be called after him. The order moved to Modon (Methoni) in the Green peninsula of Peloponnese in 1703, after repressions by the Ottoman government and the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 1711 the order received recognition by Pope Clement XI. In April 1715, a group of twelve Armenian Catholic monks led by Mkhitar Sebastatsi arrived in Venice from Morea, Peloponnese, following its invasion by the Ottoman Empire. The Venetian Admiral Mocenigo and Governor of Morea, Angelo Emo "sympathizing deeply with the fearful distress of the unfortunate community, yielded to their earnest entreaties for permission to embark on a government vessels which was about to leave for Venice."

On September 8, 1717, the Venetian Senate ceded the island of St. Lazarus to the Mechitarist order. "The Armenian Monks at once hastened to occupy the ruins on the Island... and the Abbot ordered the most necessary repairs to be at once made on the crumbling and dilapidated buildings which still remained." The Armenian monks were required not to rename the island. Upon acquisition the construction of a two-storey Armenian monastery began. The preexisting church of St. Lazarus was renovated. Gardens, residency buildings, a seminary and other structures were constructed. The construction of the monastery was completed by 1740. Mkhitar Sebastatsi died in 1749 and was succeeded by Stepanos Melkonian of Constantinople whose tenure as abbot ended 1799.

The original isle in 1813

The expanded isle in 1945

The Venetian Republic was disestablished by Napoleon in 1797, however, the Mechitarist congregation was "left in peace", allegedly because of the "presence of an indispensable Armenian official in Naopleon's secretariat." In 1810 Napoleon signed a decree, which declared the congregation may continue to exist as an "Academy of learning".

The island has been enlarged several times. In 1815 by the permission of the Austrian Empire the island's size doubled from around 7,200 m² (77,500 sq ft) to 14,400 m² (155,000 sq ft).

During the 1848 revolutions in the Italian states a small garrison was stationed at the island.

William Dean Howells described the island and the monastery in 1866 as follows: "As a seat of learning, San Lazzaro is famed throughout the Armenian world, and gathers under its roofs the best scholars and poets of that nation. In the press of the convent books are printed in some thirty different languages; and a number of the fathers employ themselves constantly in works of transition."

San Lazzaro as seen from a boat

20th century and beyond

The island was enlarged twice in the first half of the twentieth century. First, in 1912 the old canal was filled in and the shoreline was straightened. Following the Second World War, between 1947 and 1949 significant land was reclaimed in the southeastern and southwestern sides of the island. Furthermore, a wall was built around the shore. A fire broke out in 1975, which partially destroyed the library and damaged the church, and destroyed two Gaspare Diziani paintings. Between 2002 and 2004, an extensive restoration of the monastery's structures was carried out by the funding of the Italian government.

Current state

Currently, 17 to over thirty people reside at the island, including monks, seminarians and students.

According to a 2007 article some 40,000 people visit the island annually, mostly non-Armenians with Italians making up the majority of visitors.

The island may be reached by a vaporetto from the San Zaccaria station. There are tours in several different languages.

The island

The interior of the church (left) and the cloister of the monastery (right) with the onion-shaped bell tower.

The museum

The island currently contains a church with a neo-Gothic interior, a tall onion-shaped campanile (bell tower), residential quarters, library, museum, picture gallery, manuscript repository, printing plant, sundry teaching and research facilities, gardens, an Armenian Genocide memorial (erected in the 1960s). The gardens of the monastery have been admired by many visitors. One author wrote in 1905: "The island [...] with its flower and fruit gardens, is so well kept that an excursion to San Lazzaro is a favourite one with all visitors to Venice."

Collections

In the mid-19th century an English publication wrote that "the convent may be regarded as a species of metropolis of Armenian literature." The library contains 150,000 to 200,000 printed books and periodicals.

Manuscripts

The rotunda-shaped manuscript repository (manuscript library), built in 1970, contains some 3,000 to 4,000 medieval Armenian manuscripts, making it the third largest collection of Armenian manuscripts in the world after Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia (11,000 in the strict sense to 17,000 in total) and the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem (3,890). The earliest manuscripts preserved at the repository date to the eighth century. It holds one of the ten extant copies of Urbatagirk, the first-ever Armenian book printed by Hakob Meghapart in Venice in 1512. Furthermore, 44 Armenian prayer scrolls (hmayil) are preserved at the repository. The ceiling of the manuscript repository was painted by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Museum

Besides books and manuscripts, there are various oriental artifacts at the museum, which include an Egyptian mummy, Etruscan vases, Chinese antiques, an Indian throne, and other items. The museum also preserves the sword of Leo V, the last Armenian King of Cilicia, forged in 1366 and stamps issued by the 1918-20 First Republic of Armenia.

Publishing house

A publishing house was established at the monastery in 1789. In the early 19th century, a number of important publications were made on the island, including a seminal two-volume dictionary of Classical Armenian (Նոր Բառգիրք Հայկազեան Լեզուի, 1836-7), which remains "unsurpassed". Beginning in 1800 a periodical journal has been published at the island. Bazmavep, established in 1843, continues to be published to this day. The printing press at San Lazzaro is the oldest continuously operating Armenian publishing house in the world.

Significance

Island of Surb Ghazar at night by Gevorg Bashinjaghian (1892), National Gallery of Armenia.

Sometimes called a "little Armenia", the island is one of the Armenian diaspora's "richest enclaves of culture". The New York Times wrote in 1919: "For more than two centuries this island has been an Armenian oasis transplanted to the Venetian lagoon." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church calls the convent of San Lazzaro and the order of the Mechitarists "especially remarkable" of the religious orders based in Venice.

Mary M. Tarzian suggests that Armenian nationalism among Armenians in the Ottoman Empire emerged from the educational vision of the Mechitarists in San Lazzaro. Charles Yriarte wrote in 1877 that the Armenians "look with justice upon the island of San Lazzaro as the torch which shall one day illuminate Armenia, when the hour comes for her to live again in history and to take her place once more among free nations."

According to Robert H. Hewsen the monastery of San Lazzaro "for a full century was the only center of intensive Armenian cultural activity that the Armenians possessed" and until the establishment of the Lazarev Institute in Moscow in 1815 "the heritage of the Armenian people lay almost entirely in the hands of the Mekhitarists" in San Lazzaro.

When asked about the mass emigration following the independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union and the collapse of its economy in the 1990s in a 1996 interview, the writer Hrant Matevosyan stated that no matter how many people leave Armenia, it will remain "our cultural center, our San Lazzaro."

In literature

The prominent Armenian poet Hovhannes Shiraz wrote a poem about the island:

Օտար ջրերում հայացեալ Կղզի Հայոց հին լույսն է քեզնով նորանում... Հայրենիքից դուրս՝ հայրենեաց համար:

An Armenian island in the foreign waters, You rekindle the old light of Armenia... Outside the homeland, for the sake of the homeland.

Artistic depictions

Numerous artists have painted the island, including Gevorg Bashinjaghian (1892), Ivan Aivazovsky (1899), Joseph Pennell (1905), Hovhannes Zardaryan (1958).

Rose jam

The Mechitarist monks at San Lazzaro are known for making jam from rose petal around May, when the roses are in full bloom. Besides rose petal, it contains white caster sugar, water, and lemon juice. It is called Vartanush (Western Armenian pronunciation of վարդանուշ, vardanush literally translating to "sweet rose"; also a female given name). Around five thousand jars of jam are made and sold in the gift shop in the island. Monks also eat it for breakfast.

Notable residents and students

A statue of Mkhitar Sebastatsi (Mechitar)

• Mkhitar Sebastatsi (Mekhitar or Mechitar), the founder of the Mechitarist Order lived in the island from 1717 until his death in 1749.
• Mikayel Chamchian, Armenian historian
• Arpiar Arpiarian, Armenian writer
• Karl Friedrich Neumann, German orientalist
• Tserents, Armenian writer
• Ara Baliozian, Armenian writer
• Parsegh Shahbaz, Armenian political activist and journalist
• Giovanni Beltrame, Italian missionary and geographer
• Gabriel Aivazovsky, Armenian Archbishop, scientist, historian
• Pietro Kuciukian, Italian Armenian surgeon and writer
• Ohannés Gurekian, Armenian architect, engineer, and alpinist
• Kurken Alemshah, Armenian composer and conductor
• Charles Garabed Atamian, Armenian painter
• Mihran Damadian, Armenian freedom fighter, political activist, writer and teacher
• Daniel Varoujan, Armenian poet
• Léon Arthur Tutundjian, Armenian painter
• Alicia Terzian, Armenian musicologist
• Ariel Agemian, Armenian painter
• Edgar Manas, Armenian composer, conductor and musicologist
• Tovmas Terzian, Armenian poet and playwright
• Yervand Lalayan, Armenian ethnographer, archaeologist, folklorist. He worked at the island for around six months in 1894.
• Ghevont Alishan, a prominent historian, was a member of the Mechitarist Order since 1838. In 1849-51 he edited the journal Bazmavep and taught at the monastic seminary in 1866-72. He lived in the island permanently from 1872 until his death in 1901.
• Hrant Maloyan, Syrian Armenian military serviceman and politician

Notable visitors

Lord Byron's visit to the island, by Ivan Aivazovsky (1899)

• Pope Pius VII (May 9, 1800)
• Lord Byron, a prominent English Romantic poet, lived in the island from late 1816 to early 1817. He signed his name in a book first time on November 27, 1816. By early 1817 Byron had acquired enough Armenian to translate passages from Classical Armenian into English. He co-authored English Grammar and Armenian in 1817, and Armenian Grammar and English in 1819, where he included quotations from classical and modern Armenian. Byron is considered the most prominent of all visitors of the island. The room where Byron studied now bears his name and is cherished by the monks. There is also a plaque commemorating Byron's visit.
• Gioachino Rossini, Italian composer (1800s)
• John Hobhouse, British politician and diarist (1816)
• Lady Morgan, Irish novelist (1820)
• Lord William Russell, British Member of Parliament (1821)
• Julius Heinrich Petermann, German orientalist (1833)
• Friedrich Windischmann, German orientalist (1833)
• Alfred de Musset, French writer (1834)
• George Sand, French novelist (July 1834)
• Prince Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoleon I's nephew, King of Westphalia
• Catharine Sedgwick, American novelist (1839)
• Ivan Aivazovsky, Russian-Armenian painter (1840). He met his older brother, Gabriel, who was working at the monastery at that time. At the monastery library and the art gallery, Aivazovsky familiarized himself with Armenian manuscripts and Armenian art in general.
• Ludwig I, King of Bavaria (1841)
• John Ruskin, British art critic (early 1850s)
• Victor Langlois, French historian (1850s)
• Margherita of Savoy, Queen of the Kingdom of Italy
• Ernest Renan, French philosopher and historian (1850)
• Julia Ward Howe, American abolitionist, social activist, poet (1850)
• William Cullen Bryant, American poet (1853)
• Richard Wagner, German composer (1859)
• Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico
• Carlota, Belgian princess and Empress of Mexico
• William Dean Howells, American author, literary critic, and playwright (1861)
• Edward VII, Prince of Wales and future King of the United Kingdom (1861)
• Napoleon III, Emperor of France (1862)
• Helen Hunt Jackson, American poet and writer (1869)
• Joseph Horne, American businessman (1870)
• Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil (1871)
• Ulysses S. Grant, American president (1878)
• William Gladstone, British Prime Minister (1879)
• Vardges Sureniants, Armenian painter (1881)
• Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll and daughter of Queen Victoria (1881)
• Eleonora Duse, Italian actress (1886)
• Cuthbert Butler, Benedictine monk and historian (1898)
• Marcel Proust, French writer (1900)
• Edgar Fawcett, American novelist and poet (1900)
• Komitas, Armenian musicologist (July 1907). He lectured on Armenian folk and sacred music and researched the Armenian music notation (khaz) system in the monastery library.
• Joseph Stalin, a Russian revolutioner and the future Soviet dictator (1907). He found a lodging at the monastery and worked there as a bell-ringer during his 1907 trip through Italy to Switzerland to visit Vladimir Lenin, possibly in preparation to 1907 Tiflis bank robbery.
• Yeghishe Charents, Armenian poet (1924)
• Avetik Isahakyan, Armenian writer (1924)
• Aram Khachaturian, Soviet Armenian composer (1963)
• David Marshall Lang, British scholar (1967)
• Victor Ambartsumian, Soviet Armenian astrophysicist (1969)
• Margaret Doody, Canadian writer (early 1990s)
• Adelina von Fürstenberg, Swiss curator (1990s onward)
• Robert Rauschenberg, American artist (1996)
• Robert Kocharyan, 2nd President of Armenia (2005)
• Prince Charles Philippe, Duke of Anjou (2005)
• Charles Falconer, Lord Chancellor of England and Wales (2005)
• László Paskai, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (2005)
• Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians (2008)
• Serzh Sargsyan, 3rd President of Armenia (2011)

See also

• Armenians in Italy
• List of Armenian ethnic enclaves
• Santa Croce degli Armeni

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

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